Metropolitan News-Enterprise

Jan. 10, 1993

Page 3

Superior Court Presiding Judge Robert Mallano Lauded at 'Person of the Year' Dinner

Robert Mallano presiding judge of the Los Angeles Superior Court, was praised Thursday evening by his assistant presiding judge,
Gary Klausner, for "giving 150 percent of his time" to the court.

Klausner's plaudits were made at the Metropolitan News-Enterprise's sixth annual "Person of the Year" dinner at the Biltmore Hotel. Mallano was
feted for his 15 years of service as a member of the judiciary, capped by his becoming presiding judge of the Superior Court in 1993.

The first year of Mallano's two-year term of office has been marked by achievements including reaching long-sought judicial and administrative court coordination agreements with most of the county's municipal courts; administrative unification between the Superior Court and the municipal courts of Los Angeles, Long Beach, Santa Monica, Glendale, and Malibu; and converting all civil courtrooms in the downtown courthouse to the direct calendaring, or "fast track" system rather than having cases assigned to judges out of a master calendar courtroom.

Metropolitan News-Enterprise Co-Publisher Jo-Ann Grace said of Mallano:

"He has turned fiscal impediments, acrimony and disorder into challenges. With calm and with brilliance, he has met those challenges.

"Wielding the weapons of diplomacy and good faith, he has solved the insoluble, reconciled the irreconcilable, and mended the unmendable. Looking at the administrative unification and judicial coordination he guided to reality, and the burning controversies he quietly doused, it must  be recognized that Robert M. Mallano is more than a successful leader. He is a miracle worker."

But most of the remarks at the dinner light-hearted praise heaped on Mallano at the dinner focused on the judge's personal qualities--and Italian ethnicity--rather than his accomplishments.

State Sen. Cathie Wright, R-Simi Valley, who recently announced her election bid for lieutenant governor, said she was "pleased to honor Bob, a paisan--he's an Italian, and so am I."

Attorney Paul Caruso, who along with Mallano was one of the co-founders of the Italian American Lawyers Association, jested that Mallano "every year donates $10,000 to the family of the Unknown Soldier" and added that another of the IALA founders had been heard to say "God, I wish Mallano had gone into the priesthood--then all I'd have to do is kiss his ring."

Mallano has credited his appointment to the bench partly to lobbying by the IALA of then-Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. for more Italian judges.

City Council President John Ferraro, who presented Mallano with a scroll from the city, joked that "these are hard to get unanimously--it was a close vote, 8 to 7."

The judge's fourth-grade teacher at Ascension School, Sister St. George, regaled the audience with tales of Mallano's childhood, describing him as frequently having his head in his desk to avoid being called on. She described his early practices of sitting in the middle of the classroom and standing in the middle of lines--thus avoiding both being called on by the teacher and being bothered by more unruly students--as "reflecting judiciousness and a reasoned choice of all possible worlds."

Sister St. George is the aunt of Los Angeles Supervisor Mike Antonovich, who was present at a cocktail reception preceding the dinner. Antonovich brought with him a scroll in commendation of the presiding judge.

Mallano thanked the speakers for their praise, but quoted a jurist who defined a judge as one who is "surrounded by people who tell him how wonderful he is--but if he starts to believe it he is a lost soul."

And, he added, "a person who rests on their laurels is wearing them in the wrong place."

The event was kicked off with the audience joining in the singing of "God Bless America," played on the piano by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Carol Fieldhouse. The singing was led by Nora Manella, U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, and Elizabeth Turner, wife of Court of Appeal Presiding Justice Paul Turner of this district's Div. Five.

Frank Zolin, director of the Department of Motor Vehicles, served as emcee for the fifth year in a row.


Hit "BACK" or click on hyperlink below

Robert Mallano--Thumbnail Biography, Links

LawZone Judges Page
LawZone Opening Page
Metropolitan News Company Homepage